• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Nebuliser and saline supply

C

CV26

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Aug 17, 2020
Messages
385
Reaction score
912
Points
455
Location
England
Hello. Dash's respiratory condition that he's had for a couple of years has got noticeably worse in the last month. He sounds very stuffy.

We've bought a nebuliser on the vets recommendation and I've got a bottle of saline solution from Amazon. All of the larger bottles suggest they're one time use only...but the small single does packets you can buy are more expensive obviously. I only need 10-20ml a time.

I've opened the bottle, creating a very small hole. I poured it into a cup rather than dipping anything in and I've resealed it as best as possible and put it in the fridge. I've read online that it could be ok for 30 days although this isn't on the bottle...it says once opened discard.

I know I could make my own salt water each day if the bottle is not worth buying.

But what do others do for piggy nebulisers?
 
I use F10 antiseptic as recommended by the vets I see. I buy the concentrate and mix 250ml at a time in a medicine bottle from the vet.
Sending Dash healing vibes. I hope the nebuliser helps him. I've been nebulising 5 of mine on and off for months as a respiratory infection has been doing the rounds! I have one (Brillo) who is going to need regular nebulising from now on as his lungs have been permanently damaged. He also has Bisolven powder for when his breathing gets grunty.
 
When I was using a nebuliser with saline, i bought (was prescribed?) a sachet of saline at the vets - one that is like the sachets used on drips for humans. I had to use a needled syringe to draw the solution out through the seal. It lasted a long time because you only put a small amount in the nebuliser
 
Thank you both.

The vet just said saline but I have seen a few posts about the F10 so I might try that too. And I'll ask about other options via the vet.

He still seems chirpy enough in himself, but it's probably not comfortable for him at all.

The vet also suggested going down the road of steroids via a human inhaler. But we'd need to get an expensive air flow valve/chamber thing to administer it. And it's steroids so I'm keen to see if the nebuliser works first.

We knew we'd probably get to this point. It is a miracle that he and his brother have got to 2 and a half! Spud seems ok at the moment, but Dash just hasn't faired quite as well.
 
When I was nebulising Zebedee (who had scarred lungs due to poor early care probably), I started just with saline to ease his breathing, and later added F10 for its antiseptic properties. We also tried nebulising Baytril at a later date.

I don't know about steroids, in most forms they're not good for guineas except for palliative care I believe.

Sending healing vibes x
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top